Something Bigger or Better? - October 7
Today’s Readings: AM Psalm 119:145-176; PM Psalm 128, 129, 130; Micah 2:1-13; Acts 23:23-35; Luke 7:18-35
I was drawn to the church for the first time on my own in sixth grade. We had a pretty fun youth group and my friend Warren was a year older and could tell a story that left you wanting more. He had gone to the Youth group kickoff the year before when he had entered seventh grade. The group played a game that had everyone wandering the neighborhood with a single task: get something bigger and better. It was easy. Each team would start with a paper clip and knock on a random person’s door (this was the old part of town where no one was a stranger and weirdness was welcome) and ask them for something bigger and better. Warren’s group ended up walking around Midtown with a cool old couch. I couldn’t wait for that next year! I wanted to go to youth group and play “Bigger and Better.” Better yet, I just wanted to go and get an experience that was bigger and better than before. I was excited for the first time in my life for what the church could offer.
And it did offer something wonderful and it wasn’t at all what I expected. I think we as people are often drawn to religion for the insight it will lead us to something bigger and better. We want an experience or a union with the divine that we have yet to find. We want more. That more might not be physical belongings or wealth, or prestige, but there can be something of the allure to more knowledge, or depth, or connection. We want a bigger experience. Sometimes we want to be drawn to the community that will help us with professional connections or surrounds us with people that we aspire to be.
I wonder if Jesus is prodding this same question when he addresses the disciples, “What did you go out into the wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind? What then did you go out to see? Someone dressed in soft robes?” Jesus is critical of their motivations.
And then Jesus turns it all upside down. Tax-collectors are welcome. The least of these is the greatest. And John tells us to repent. This is what we went into the wilderness for? Repentance and to lose everything we thought was important?
We are reminded today that we are not led into our faith to become bigger or better, but actually quite the opposite. We are invited to be stripped of our pride, our ego, to see ourselves as no better than each other. We are called to focus on our humility and ego through the act of repentance. This is what we were invited into the wilderness to find. We were invited to find God who heals our brokenness, not celebrates our achievements. Not something bigger or better. But the irony of the life we find is it calls us into something greater than anything else we could possibly imagine.
John+
Questions for Self-Reflection: What are the most important parts of a faith community to you? How do you hope your life is different? What are you hoping to find?
Daily Challenge: What is the wilderness for you? We might be far away from Lent, but consider the spiritual wilderness that you are being invited into, and make a plan to spend some time there this week.